This invention relates generally to the field of support pillows and, in particular, to support pillows that are intended to be placed around a variety of differently sized objects. More specifically, the invention relates to support pillows that may be manipulated to different configurations and automatically spring back to their original shape.
Over the years, a variety of support pillows have found commercial acceptance. Once exemplary support pillow is the Boppy® pillow, marketed by The Boppy Company. Various forms of this pillow are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,261,134, 5,546,620, 5,661,861, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,055,657, among others. The complete disclosures of these patents are incorporated herein by reference.
Another exemplary pillow is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,412,128, which is incorporated herein by reference. Such a pillow includes a cover with an inner strip of material which permits the arms to be separated without tearing or damaging the cover. This invention provides various improvements to similar types of support pillows, permitting convenient separation of the arms while allowing them to spring back to their starting position.